tweis
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 21, 2012
Hi! I absolutely love reading the trip reports on the these boards. They have been so helpful to me so I thought I would try writing one to kind of give back and help cruisers. I am Trina (tweis) and this was my second time cruising with DCL and second time on the Dream. The first was last June with my DH and our two kids (9 &10) for a double dip. It was great but this time DH and I wanted to take a trip for our anniversary and adding on a 3 night cruise seemed like a great way to end our week long trip. I did not take many photos of this trip so I don't know that I will be able to post many.
We live in GA and would be driving down to the port. We decided to make the drive down part of our vacation. I absolutely hate long car rides so this was great for me. We stayed 2 nights in Savannah (beautiful), a night in St. Augustine (loved it), had a nice scenic ride down A1-A and Daytona Beach, then stayed the night in Cocoa Beach before our cruise.
Beautiful Savannah, GA
DH and I at Fort Castillo in St. Augustine
Either Daytona Beach or Cocoa Beach
Last year we stayed at the Radisson the night before our cruise and used their park and cruise service. The pool area was great at the Radisson but the beds were so uncomfortable and I really got impatient with the shuttle service so we have decided not to stay there again. We chose the lovely DoubleTree Inn at Cocoa Beach. We knew we would be arriving kind of later in the evening so we opted not to stay on the executive level because alot of the perks are evening snacks and drinks in the lounge. Since we are Hilton Honors members, we each received a complimentary drink from the bar and of course everyone gets one of the yummy warm cookies.
We had booked an oceanview king room. The room was great with really nice bedding and wonderful Crabtree and Evelyn toiletries. The shower was tile with glass doors. Really nice. We were hungry and luckily just across the street is a Sonny's BBQ. I love BBQ. The service was good but the pork was dry. The sauce helped and I was hungry. We went back to the DoubleTree and decided to get our free drink from the bar. We had the option of a blue lemonade or a blue lagoon. My DH asked what the difference was and the bar tender said one had alcohol and the other didn't. We chose the one with alcohol which was the blue lagoon. My DH really enjoyed it and had a second. It was getting windy and we really wanted to take a stroll on the beach before it was too dark to see. My DH had never been to a beach on the Atlantic Coast so on our drive down we stopped and visited different beaches along the way. We still prefer the beaches on the Gulf but he decided Daytona and Cocoa wasn't bad. We had stopped at Tybee Island and that gave him a bad first impression of Atlantic Beaches. The sand was really brown and course and their were piles of sticks all over the beach. The water also looked really dark brown. He is used to sugar sand beaches and emerald waters so it was a real shock to him. Lol We took a nice leisurely stroll down the beach and was having such a nice time that it was completely dark on our way back to the hotel. The DoubleTree has showers so that you can rinse the sand off before going either in the pool or back into the hotel. We decided to turn in since we had a port arrival time of 11:00-11:30 and we still need to stop to pick up beer and juice and to have some breakfast.
We live in GA and would be driving down to the port. We decided to make the drive down part of our vacation. I absolutely hate long car rides so this was great for me. We stayed 2 nights in Savannah (beautiful), a night in St. Augustine (loved it), had a nice scenic ride down A1-A and Daytona Beach, then stayed the night in Cocoa Beach before our cruise.
Beautiful Savannah, GA
DH and I at Fort Castillo in St. Augustine
Either Daytona Beach or Cocoa Beach
Last year we stayed at the Radisson the night before our cruise and used their park and cruise service. The pool area was great at the Radisson but the beds were so uncomfortable and I really got impatient with the shuttle service so we have decided not to stay there again. We chose the lovely DoubleTree Inn at Cocoa Beach. We knew we would be arriving kind of later in the evening so we opted not to stay on the executive level because alot of the perks are evening snacks and drinks in the lounge. Since we are Hilton Honors members, we each received a complimentary drink from the bar and of course everyone gets one of the yummy warm cookies.
We had booked an oceanview king room. The room was great with really nice bedding and wonderful Crabtree and Evelyn toiletries. The shower was tile with glass doors. Really nice. We were hungry and luckily just across the street is a Sonny's BBQ. I love BBQ. The service was good but the pork was dry. The sauce helped and I was hungry. We went back to the DoubleTree and decided to get our free drink from the bar. We had the option of a blue lemonade or a blue lagoon. My DH asked what the difference was and the bar tender said one had alcohol and the other didn't. We chose the one with alcohol which was the blue lagoon. My DH really enjoyed it and had a second. It was getting windy and we really wanted to take a stroll on the beach before it was too dark to see. My DH had never been to a beach on the Atlantic Coast so on our drive down we stopped and visited different beaches along the way. We still prefer the beaches on the Gulf but he decided Daytona and Cocoa wasn't bad. We had stopped at Tybee Island and that gave him a bad first impression of Atlantic Beaches. The sand was really brown and course and their were piles of sticks all over the beach. The water also looked really dark brown. He is used to sugar sand beaches and emerald waters so it was a real shock to him. Lol We took a nice leisurely stroll down the beach and was having such a nice time that it was completely dark on our way back to the hotel. The DoubleTree has showers so that you can rinse the sand off before going either in the pool or back into the hotel. We decided to turn in since we had a port arrival time of 11:00-11:30 and we still need to stop to pick up beer and juice and to have some breakfast.